This new and distinct variety of rose was produced by James A. Sproul, under conditions of careful and controlled observation, at his nursery in Bakersfield, Calif. It is the result of crossing two seedlings from his breeding program: ‘WEKjoe’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 9,389) by ‘JACient’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 6,725) as seed parent; and ‘WEKblusi’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 10,188) by ‘SCRivluv’ (unpatented), as pollen parent. This new invention has been given the trade name of FIRST IMPRESSION.
The primary objective of this breeding was to produce new rose varieties with superb resistance to diseases, especially powdery mildew, and with an abundance of flowers. Hybrid tea flower form was also a goal. To meet this objective, parents were chosen for their proven resistance to powdery mildew and abundance of bloom with good flower form, with the intention of crossing them directly with ‘SCRivluv’ or seedlings of ‘SCRivluv’, which is noted for it's superb resistance to black spot. The objective was substantially achieved in this new, dark yellow rose that has hybrid tea form buds and flowers on a plant continually in bloom and that is proving its ability to resist diseases.
The seed parent is a seedling from this breeding program, ‘WEKjoe’ by ‘JACient’. It was a pink blend, large-flowered, hybrid tea type rose. ‘SPRoimpress’, is easily distinguished from its seed parent by color of flowers and size and habit of the plant. By way of comparison, ‘SPRoimpress’ has dark yellow flowers, borne in clusters, and is shorter and more branched. Being a hybrid tea rose, the flowers of the seed parent are borne primarily singly.
The pollen parent, ‘WEKblusi’ by ‘SCRivluv’, also has yellow flowers but they are a lighter yellow, smaller in size and with fewer petals. It has been used within this breeding program as pollen parent for a number of crosses, still being evaluated. The resulting offspring are also yellow but had yellow roses as seed parents. Some of these offspring show traits similar to the flower form and disease resistance of this new invention but none has the same upright plant habit or flowers of as dark a yellow.